Vanessa Bryant

Bryant was born as Vanessa Cornejo Urbieta on May 5, 1982, in Huntington Beach, California to Mexican parents. She was three years old when her parents divorced and her mother, Sophia Urbieta, raised her by herself, holding two jobs at once. In 1990, Sophia married Stephen Laine, whose surname Vanessa took in 2000 despite not being officially adopted by Laine. She has an older sister named Sophie.

As a teenager, Vanessa met Kobe who was pursuing a side career in music back then, while filming for a music video for the hip-hop group Tha Eastsidaz as a backup dancer. Soon enough, he was sending roses to Marina High where she studied and picking her up after school. On her 18th birthday, the pair made the news of their engagement public. They married on April 18, 2001.

Kobe’s parents, his siblings, other members of his immediate family, and even his teammates at the Lakers did not attend the ceremony. Later, his father and former NBA star Joe "Jellybean" Bryant would admit in an interview that they disapproved their son’s choice of a bride. Kobe has since stated that it was because she was a Latina. The birth of Vanessa and Kobe’s first daughter, Natalia Diamante, in January 2003, has healed some of these wounds.

Vanessa always has been a fiercely guarded individual. Initially, following Kobe’s announcement of their engagement, she was overwhelmed by the television news crews at her doorstep and the helicopters hovering over her school. She even quit school to avoid being swept over by the media frenzy and received her degree independently. These days it is a completely different story. She is the embodiment of a perfect sports wife, attending games and accompanying her husband to social events.

Vanessa gave birth to their second daughter, Giana Maria-Onore, in 2006. She filed for divorce on December 16, 2011, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple appealed for joint custody of their two daughters. However, on January 11, 2013, they revealed on social media—she on Instagram, he on Facebook—that they have called off the divorce proceedings. Their third daughter, Bianka Bella, was born in 2016.

In 2003, six months after Natalia’s birth, Kobe faced sexual assault charges filed by a 19-years-old employee of a hotel in Colorado. He had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera on 30 June, as he was having a surgery nearby two days later. The woman claimed that Kobe had raped her in his hotel room on the night before the surgery. While at first he maintained that he did not have any form of sexual encounter with the woman, he later relented stating that it was consensual, but still vehemently denied the rape allegations.

On 26 July, Vanessa and Kobe held a press conference together, where a tearful Bryant admitted to cheating on his wife. Vanessa, in turn, while acknowledging her husband’s infidelity, said that they wished to deal with the issue “within their marriage”. The case was eventually dropped, only days before it went to trial when Bryant’s alleged victim refused to testify in the court. She did launch a civil action suit against Kobe soon after, which was settled out of court. In 2005, Vanessa suffered a miscarriage due to tubal pregnancy. In a recent Showtime documentary, Kobe wondered if the stress from the 2003 ordeal had anything to do with the miscarriage.

In 2004, she accused her husband’s teammate Karl Malone of behaving inappropriately with her. This led to a heated phone call where Kobe told Malone to stay away from his wife.

The couple faced another lawsuit in 2009, this time by their former housekeeper Maria Jimenez, who accused Vanessa of "badgering, harassing and humiliating” her repeatedly. The Bryants filed a counterclaim, stating that Jimenez had violated a confidentiality agreement when she decided to discuss their private affairs in public. It too was settled out of court.